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Topic: Winnie & Pooh - 14" guns (Read 14173 times)

It is interesting to see these photographs with IWM reference numbers, many of them can be found at the Royal Marines Library with their reference numbers, I wonder who actually has the copyright. The RM Library are quite keen on their copyright. The transport that General Hunton is using is called a Wickham Trolley.

With "Winnie and Pooh", British cross-channel guns. 27 to 29 September 1944, St Margaret's Bay, Dover. "Winnie and Pooh" are the great cross-channel guns of the Royal Marine Siege Unit which are used to reply to the enemy long range shelling of the Dover area. After an action when two of the enemy cross-channel guns had been reported put out of action by "Winnie and Pooh's" heavy battering, Lieutenant General Sir Thomas L Hunton, KCB, MVO, OBE, General Officer Commanding Royal Marines, visited the gun crews and congratulated them on fine work.

Bob Ogley has a bit about this gun in his War in Kent book, including this memory:

On October 23rd 1942 Winston Churchill, a regular visitor to Dover, escorted General Smuts on a tour of the town and its defences. One of the great Channel guns was called 'Winnie' and Churchill, obviously delighted that his name had been adopted for this vast piece of artillery, once ordered it to be fired. Mrs L. Crowther, then a WREN, remembered the incident. " 'Winnie', and the other gun 'Pooh' shelled France and the entourage had approximately 20 minutes to hustle Churchill out of town and onto a train before the Germans fired all their guns in reply."

The first shells to cross the channelThe first British Heavy to be ready for action was the 14" gun 'Winnie'. She was handed over to the Royal Marines on 7th August 1940. It was only five days after this, at eleven o'clock on the morning of August 12th that a German shell landed on Edgar Crescent, near St Radigunds Gasworks Dover. Destroying four houses. It was the first Shell to fall on British soil, fired from another country. Winnie did not respond, her crews carried on with their training and drills. Ten days later the German guns opened fire again, this time on a convoy of ships sailing the channel. The convoy commander thought he was being bombed, until he realised there was just one plane in the sky: A German spotter plane. It was time to call Winnie into action; a British spotter plane was sent up to identify the target,: The German C3 Battery. At 2:00pm Lieutenant-Colonel H.D. Fellows, C.O. of the Royal Marine Siege Regiment, fired the first of a three shell salvo to cross the Channel. They travelled 38,240 yards and landed 300 yards from their target. Not bad for a first attempt. Unfortunately this persuaded the Germans to fire the remainder of their 100 shell bombardment on the town. A tactic that was to be repeated throughout the war.